PLDA, the industry leader in PCI (News - Alert) Express® controller IP solutions and
Samtec, a privately held $800MM global manufacturer of a broad line of
electronic interconnect solutions, today announced a demo of their
combined PCIe 4.0 solution that delivers full PCIe 4.0 bandwidth (16
GT/s) over copper or optical fiber at minimal cost.

The solution is based on a PLDA PCIe 4.0 acquisition board running
PLDA's PCIe 4.0 controller IP combined with Samtec's FireFly™ Micro
Flyover System™. This demo suggests a solution to overcoming the
inherent limitations of maintaining PCIe 4.0 performance over long
distances without changing the motherboard technology or using costly
retimers.

As cloud computing and deep learning accelerators drive faster advances
in the PCIe roadmap, existing hardware designs cannot support the higher
speed signals over the same distances. The PCIe 1.0 specification
allowed signals to travel as much as 20 inches over traces in mainstream
FR4 boards, even while passing through two connectors.

In contrast, today's quicker 16 GT/s PCIe 4.0 signals will peter out in
under six inches and without going over any connectors. In today's
designs, PCIe 4.0 signals can only travel three to five inches,
requiring costly redesigns, moving to MEGTRON 6 and adding a retimer for
increased distance.

PLDA's demo shows a system running at 16 GT/s and displaying relevant
throughput and latency measurements. The demo result shows the
bandwidth is not impacted by distance when using copper or optical
fibers.

By using optical fibers, PLDA and Samtec demonstrate that PCIe 4.0 can
be used for remote applications (e.g. EMI sensitive environments)

"PCIe Designers are delaying their upgrade to the next generation of
PCIe because they anticipate high board manufacturing costs, said Hugues
Deneux, COO of PLDA. "With this demo, we want to show a new approach
that provides great bandwidth and good latency over any distance for
PCIe 4.0 communications."

"Samtec and PLDA's multi-year PCIe 4.0 collaboration lowers barriers of
entry and quickens time to market," said Arlon Martin, Senior Marketing
Director of Samtec Optical Group. "The Samtec PCIe® Optical Flyover
Cable Assembly enables designers to more efficiently take advantage of
the incredibly low latency and high throughput without board
constraints".

For more information or to discover how the PLDA and Samtec approach
could work for your next PCIe 4.0 design:

Contact PLDA to schedule a time to test your own hardware using PLDA's
demo at sales@plda.com

About PLDAPLDA is a developer and licenser of Semiconductor
Intellectual Property (SIP) specializing in high speed interconnect
supporting multi-gigabit rates (2.5G, 5G, 8G, 16G, 25G, 32G, 56G, 112G)
and protocols such as PCI Express, CCIX, and Gen-Z. PLDA has established
itself as a leader in this field with over 3,200 customers and 6,800
licenses in 62 countries. PLDA is a global technology company with
offices in Silicon Valley, France, Bulgaria, Taiwan, and China.

About Samtec, Inc.Founded in 1976, Samtec is a privately
held, $713MM global manufacturer of a broad line of electronic
interconnect solutions, including High-Speed Board-to-Board, High-Speed
Cables, Mid-Board and Panel Optics, Precision RF, Flexible Stacking, and
Micro/Rugged components and cables. With 33 locations in 18 different
countries, Samtec's global presence enables its unmatched customer
service. For more information, please visit http://www.samtec.com.

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